We Are the Hearts
by Celestial Empress
Summary: A handful of hearts that are bound together by a tragedy that is infesting the Pokemon world. PMD based. Rated M for dark themes and potential romance. *Proper summary in the works*


**Hey! Celeste here. This story is NOT filled with romance. It's a dark adventure filled with pain, gore, and the healing properties that come with true friendship/love. Summary still in the works, so sorry if it seems kind of dull or if it doesn't make sense.**

 **Oh, and this story is based on a song called We Are the Hearts by EXGF. Check it out if you'd like! Okay, lets start this off!**

* * *

"It's all going to be okay. I promise you. It's all going to be okay!"

These words echoed through my mind like warning bells. They were distraught and came out like a bubbling brook; I don't even think she knew what she was saying. My partner, Gem, was crying her eyes out beside me. I wanted to reach over and pinch her for being a crybaby-something I always had to do, but movement failed me. Actually, I couldn't even feel my arms or legs. I couldn't feel my entire body.

What had happened to me? All I remembered was going to the Square with Gem to pick up some odd jobs for the rest of the week. We saw one that promised a huge reward that would cover the renovations needed for our upcoming base and we took it on impulse. It was recommended for higher ranks, but Gem and I were two tough Pokemon; we believed in ourselves and one another that we could complete it.

But...there was something odd about the whole set up. For one thing, the place where the Pokemon needed saving was out in the depths of a forest neither of us been to. We've heard of it, but higher ranks always warned others to never venture out there without a skilled team. There were "Pokemon you've never seen before" and "savages" out there. As I said before, Gem and I were confident in our capabilities so we went out in to this "spooky" forest and aimed to rescue the person in distress.

I'm still unsure as to how we both ended up not in said forest. Right now, we were back at the base and I was lying in my bed. This obviously meant that the mission was a success, right? So why was my Kirila friend crying beside me? None of this made sense and if I could, I would ask her just what the hell her deal was.

Gem was wiping the tears from her eyes and it was then that I noticed a major detail about her.

She was covered in blood.

No, covered was an understatement. She was drenched; smothered with it. From the neck down her white and green body was stained with this redness. My stomach churned. I was never one to take the sight of blood lightly and this was definitely one of those times.

Gem noticed the look of disgust I gave her and she only began to cry harder. I sighed and tried to sit up, but again, movement failed me.

"Relax! Please!" she put her hands to her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut. "If you move, it'll only spread! I already called for help, so please just stay still! Please, Omi!"

Spread? Help? What was she talking about? She was the one dripping blood and apparently I'm the one who needs help?

"Gem..." I managed to say. Speaking made my throat burn. "What...?"

Gem's big pink eyes widened and swelled up with tears again. She looked down at the floor and let her hands scrape at her legs.

"O-Omi...I don't even know what to say." She sputtered out between gasps and hiccups. "We were so stupid to go out in the Vizion Forest! So so so stupid!"

I let out a sigh and looked up at the ceiling. It was half finished since we were still expanding our base so all that made up the roof was some bamboo stalks and large leaves that didn't keep the rain out. I could see glimpses of night light from the cuts in the leaves. Gem startled me out from my daze when she put her head to my chest.

"Gem-?"

"Omi..." She whined and I could tell she was using every ounce of her strength to keep from bursting out in to tears again. "Y-You don't remember anything at all, do you?"

I shook my head. It was all I was able to do right now.

Gem lifted her head and her eyes burned in to my own. Her face was now red-how did that happen? Was she bleeding? Why was she crying and worrying over me when she was the one who was injured?

"I..." She started and shook her head. "When we went in to Vizion Forest, w-we made it in pretty far before I suggested that we go back. We were wandering for hours and never found our client and it started to get dark. You insisted on going farther and..." she was interrupted by a sudden rush of tears. "I'm so sorry,Omi! I tried to fight them all off but there were just too many a-and I'm not good with using my Psychic a-and they just kept coming and coming and then you tried to fight them all off and now you're in this damn mess! I'm sorry! I'm so, so, so _sorry_!"

With Gem once more crying over me, a wave of memories to hours prior finally came back to me.

We did enter Vizion Forest and we did search everywhere for our client. After a while we came across some unfriendly Pokemon who were not only after our supplies, but also ourselves. They were barbaric, uncivilized Pokemon who were hungry for flesh. I've never seen such bottomless eyes and faces that were wiped of any sort of emotion. It was like they were...monsters.

When Gem is terrified, she can't use her Psychic abilities as effectively as she's able to. As soon as we became surrounded by the horde of Pokemon, she was useless. I remembered her white-washed face; it was the epitome of fear. I couldn't let her sit there and get devoured by a horde of Pokemon, so I tried everything that I could to protect her.

Which now explains this gaping hole in my abdomen.

Yes, I remember it all clearly now.

I threw myself at Gem to shield her from the barrage of attacks and a Seviper's tail impaled me right in my stomach. I could feel the large object pushing through my body all over again. This also explains who my body was so numb. A Sevipers' poison is one of the most deadliest things to come in to contact with. Without proper care, it can spread within minutes and kill the victim within an hour or two.

This sudden thought made me think of something else.

How long was I out for?

A sudden rush of fear took over my body and I could hear my heart slamming against my chest. My lungs burned with each harsh breath I took and salty sweat began to slide down my face. It was way past noon now, when we set out for the mission. Hours must've passed since the incident with the barbaric Pokemon. That meant I had to have been badly poisoned for more that two hours now.

Oh.

So this was why Gem couldn't stop crying. Chances of my survival at this point were very slim. Even now I could begin to feel an unsettling numbness begin to spread in my head. Maybe I was panicking and this was my body's way of calming me down. Or maybe this was the final stage of poison starting to take over... I wasn't too sure. A part of me wanted to scream at Gem for not stopping me from taking the mission. Gem was a smart girl; she knew the potential dangers of going in to the wilderness alone. She knew that higher-ups warned everyone about the dangers of barbaric Pokemon. She knew all of this, yet she came with me anyway.

Gem followed me to our potential deaths. We are both under-skilled and lacking in almost every area known. I couldn't control my Fire and she couldn't even use her Psychic most of the time. How the hell did I expect us to survive out there?

The other part of me wanted to tell her to start searching for a new teammate. There was no way in Hell that I was going to survive this poison. And even if I did, I would be facing some long-term effects that'd leave me at a disability. It wasn't worth it. I wasn't worth it.

I sighed. I needed to see how bad I really looked down there. My stomach started to flip again and the feeling made me was to throw up. Swallowing the upcoming upchuck, I was somehow able to left my head up from my pillow and take a look at the hole in my abdomen.

It was as bad as I had imagined. My tan fur was bloody and shredded to bits. I could see my innards moving. Some were tainted a dark purple while others looked relatively normal. To my guess the darker bits were the ones already being shut down by the poison. My head fell back against the pillow. With labored breaths, I closed my eyes. I felt tears coming on. No way! I couldn't cry in front of Gem. I was supposed to be the strong one here. The one who assured her (and myself) that everything was going to work out. If I cried...

If I cried, then who was going to tell me that I was going to be alright?

Gem's gasp pulled me out of my thoughts and I was able to stop the tears before the came loose. Gem jumped up from her spot beside me and ran to the door. I could hear it open and there were quiet whispers being exchanged. Normally, I could see who was at the door from this angle, but my vision was starting to get blurry. Spots began to form in front of my eyes. It was like I was gazing through a kaleidoscope of sorts. Soon after the spots, darkness started to close in on me.

I knew that I wasn't going to go to sleep and wake up the next morning with Gem making breakfast for me. I knew that tomorrow wouldn't be another day of grinding for supplies and money for our renovations. If I closed my eyes now, it would be all over. Tomorrow wouldn't come and my body would be stone cold, laying on this exact bed until I was to be moved and buried.

My body finally went completely numb. I couldn't feel my toes or my fingers any more. I couldn't feel the Fire within me, boiling with such a hot and powerful power that made me who I was. It was all gone and cold now.

I don't know if I was dreaming then, but in the depths of my subconscious sleep, I could hear Gem's voice calling out to me.

 _Omi! Omi! Omiiiiiii!_

She would never know how I felt about her. She would never know that, almost every time, she was the reason why I trained nightly to become stronger. Gem was the most important thing in my life. I lost my parents when I was a little Chimchar and she was the one who bought me in, though she was just a Ralts herself at the time.

Gem made me who I am today. A somewhat confident Monferno who wanted to do nothing but help others and keep his loved ones safe. Without her, I would have never known how to breathe Fire, or how to ration out a shortage of food and supplies. She taught me things about myself that would have never known if it weren't for her keen eyes and sense of perception.

 _Omi, just hang in there! Help is here! Please, stay awake! Don't fall in to the darkness! Omi, COME BACK!_

* * *

They say that once you cross over the threshold that separates Life and Death, there is no point of return. I saw myself standing on that exact fine line, looked forward at the welcoming arms of Death and looking back at the cruelty that was Life. If I chose Death, the hand extended to me from a soulless representation of myself, I could leave the guilt of my mistakes behind me. I would leave all of the wrong choices I made and the obligation that I had taken up to help others when I could hardly even help myself.

It seemed like the perfect choice right now. It seemed like the most painless way to go.

Behind me, I saw my reflection. A healthy, strong willed me who had their arms crossed. Its mouth was moving but I couldn't hear nor make out any words. This me made me sick to my stomach. On the outside I looked strong and ready to take on any task that was handed to me, but on the inside I was a coward. I barely knew how to control my Fire abilities, let alone fend for myself. Every time I took on a mission that consisted of going in the a cave, I would be terrified. I hated the dark. I hated seeing a Pokemon's eyes reflect in the dark crevices of a cave. I hated it all.

My Life form wasn't as welcoming as Death before me. Life didn't hold their arm out or hold love and understanding in their eyes. It was almost as if it didn't want me to choose it. I was disgusted. Angry, even. I should just die, shouldn't I? Take the easy way out and be done with the pathetic excuse of a Life I was cursed with.

I was ready to choose Death as my ticket to being when I heard Gem's voice behind me. Quickly I spun around to see what kind of joke Life was pulling at, but to my surprise I didn't see Gem.

Her voice echoed through the white space and almost instantly my heart fell to the floor.

"What's the matter with you?! You're giving up now? Omi... how many times do I have to tell you that you're not alone? You're the strongest out of the both of us, but I'm always ready to back you up when you need me! We've been at this for almost two years now; you can't quit on me!"

I remember this exact speech she gave me. We were on a mission to save a bunch of lost Lillipup from the clutches of a Tyranitar when I suddenly gave up mid-way. I was just learning how to use the Fire in me when it started to fail me right before we entered the last level of the cave. I felt useless and didn't want to make a fool of myself in front of the obviously powerful Tyranitar waiting for us.

This was the first and last time that Gem had to reassure me.

"Omi." She put her hands on my shoulders and looked me dead in my eyes. I was kneeling before her and on the verge of breaking down completely. "I..." a sudden redness crossed over her face and she shook her head before continuing. "I believe in you even if you don't believe in yourself! I know that you'll be an S rank one day and you'll be able to do missions all on your own! I know you have the power in you, Omi, you just need to work on calling it out! You're my Captain, and as your first mate I'll always be by your side. So please, _wake up_!"

Wake up.

She wanted me to wake up.

Again, I was on the edge of giving up and Gem's powerful words moved me. I felt the tears in my eyes and this time I let them spill out. I collapsed on the ground and wrapped my arms around myself. I was weak! A pathetic excuse for a Rescue Team member who couldn't even rescue himself! But even with all of that, Gem still wanted to be by my side. She still wanted to be bothered with my idiot self even though I always wanted to give up! What did I ever do to deserve such a good friend?!

And then it hit me. The Life form now in front of me didn't extend its hand because of course it was easier to die than to live. Life was a cruel blessing that not everyone deserved. Was its' attitude its way of saying that I didn't deserve to live? Was I supposed to show my worth? I closed my eyes. That was the answer.

I wiped my eyes and pushed myself up on to my feet and the inner Fire in me started to blaze again. The warmness took over my body and engulfed my heart. I was worthy. I was worthy!

I crossed over in to the Life side and immediately I felt a mixture of hot and cold. Coldness that was the despair and cruelty in life. Hotness that expressed the passion and joy it was to be alive. This was what I wanted! This is what I, Omi, deserved!

I was face to face with my reflection now. Its' eyes searched mine for any doubts, any selfish desires that remained. It found none. Now, it extended its' hand to me. If I took its hand, I would be thrown back in the realm of living and back in to the obligations that I took up. If I chose Life, I would have Gem still at my side and we would resume living out our dreams. Was this what I really wanted? There was no turning back now.

I didn't have to spend another minute thinking on it. I grabbed the hand before me and my reflection burst in to a fiery typhoon that consumed me whole. The desire for Life that I had always yearned to feel was now in me! I wanted to live. I wanted to LIVE!

I shot upwards through the white space and the flames followed suit. It seemed like I would be flying through a never-ending cycle of whiteness, but soon I broke through the Void. It shattered like glass and now I was out in to a world of color. Up and up I flew and soon I could feel my consciousness coming back to me. My heartbeat picked up again and the flames spread all around this space.

This was it. This was the gift that I took for granted, now given back to me for a second time. Would I be more grateful? More powerful than before?

A smirk crept over my lips when I saw the familiar brightness above.

Fuck. Yeah.


End file.
